Efrat A. Arbel

Assistant Professor

Profile

Efrat Arbel is Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia Peter A. Allard School of Law. She publishes and teaches in refugee law, prison law, constitutional law, and tort law. Her primary research interests lie in examining how legal rights are negotiated and defined in liminal legal spaces like the border, the detention center, and the prison.

Prior to joining the Allard School of Law, Dr. Arbel completed her masters and doctoral studies at Harvard Law School, where she was a Canada Research Fellow with the Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs. She held a postdoctoral appointment at the University of British Columbia between 2012-2014, with visiting terms at the Oxford Center for Criminology (2013) and the European University Institute (2014).

Combining her academic work with legal practice, Dr. Arbel is engaged in advocacy and litigation involving refugee and prisoner rights. She has served on subcommittees with Westcoast LEAF and is an executive member of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. She is also a frequent media commentator on refugee and prison law issues, and has been interviewed by outlets like the CBC, Globe and Mail, National Post, and New York Times.

Courses

Refugee Law

Advanced Charter Law

Torts

Representative Published Works

“Devalued Liberty and Undue Deference: The Tort of False Imprisonment and the Law of Solitary Confinement” (2018) 84 Supreme Court Law Review (forthcoming)

“Immigration Status, Immutability, and the Limits of Equality Protection in Canadian Law” (with Eileen Myrdahl) in R. Albert, P. Daly and V. MacDonnell (eds) The Canadian Constitution in Transition (University of Toronto Press, 2018, forthcoming)